THE CMO PLAYBOOK

How to Level Up Your

Marketing Leadership
Introduction
In this eBook, you’ll discover just how
the role of the CMO has evolved
and why so many marketing leaders
today grapple with challenges like
imposter syndrome. Then, you’ll learn
four tried and true tactics to boost
your own leadership skills to support
your team better.
Contents
The Evolving Role of the CMO  4

CMOs Overwhelmingly Face Imposter Syndrome  6

Tactics to Overcome Imposter Syndrome as a CMO  8

Four Tips for CMOs to Improve Their Leadership Skills  10

1) Break Apart Departmental Silos  12

2) Respond to Shifting Consumer Priorities  13

3) Optimize Planning Processes  14

4) Learn to Speak the Language of Business  15

Invest in Proper Technology to Support Your Team  16

Look for a Cloud-Based Platform  16

Lean Into Artificial Intelligence (AI)  17

Keep an Eye Out for Integrations  17

7 Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) have one of the shortest tenures
of any C-Suite executive.
6.7
6 YEARS
According to research from Spencer Stewart, most CMOs spend
an average of 4.2 years in the position — a stark contrast to CEOs,
5 who average 6.7 years on the job.
4.2
YEARS
There are a few factors causing marketing leaders to jump ship.
4
Most CMOs have big shoes to fill, serving as strategic advisors who
must balance both the CEO’s demands and their company’s needs.
3
Plus, they do all these tasks while proving the value of marketing
efforts to their fellow executives.
2

1
The Evolving Role of the CMO
A decade ago, CMOs were primarily responsible for, well, the brass
CEOs CMOs
tacks of marketing.

These days, most CMOs are less focused on specialized tasks like
brand management and advertising — that’s still important stuff,
but it’s tasks the rest of the team can handle.

Instead, marketing leaders are focused more on demonstrating

the value of the team’s marketing efforts and building new
opportunities for strategic growth. While the team is in the weeds
with tactical responsibilities, CMOs oversee these efforts while
thinking more holistically about strategy.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

“
Many CMOs have significantly improved their
level of influence within their organizations by
knowing more about the business, marketplace, and
customers than anyone else. The CMOs who know
the most often have the greatest influence.”
Chris Ross, VP Analyst at Gartner

The average CMO also has to know customers better than anyone.
This means that most CMOs are drivers behind the customer
experience and understand every point along the customer
journey, from brand awareness to becoming a loyal customer.

Operating a marketing team without a powerful marketing

performance management platform is no longer optional. These
tools allow marketing teams to consolidate data, build campaigns,
and measure results in one centralized space.

Investing in a marketing performance management platform is a

surefire way for CMOs to take control of their customer journeys to
generate value behind their organization’s product and push their
company towards its business goals.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

CMOs Overwhelmingly Face
Imposter Syndrome
Imposter syndrome is defined by a feeling of unworthiness or
incompetence in the face of success — it’s something that many
of us have experienced but rarely discuss openly.

“I got lucky.”

“They can tell I’m a fraud.”

“I feel like I’ve lied to everyone.

I don’t belong here.”

If you’ve had these intrusive thoughts at work, you’ve likely

experienced imposter syndrome.

You’re not alone. A recent CMO Council study found that

most CMOs don’t feel confident in achieving their goals or
driving results.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

What’s causing so many CMOs to feel imposter syndrome
creeping in? Turns out, there’s a myriad of reasons.

Getting inaccurate data or lacking access to data.

Pressure from a CEO or a Sales leader to generate

demand immediately.

Feeling in the dark about what is being executed

by the team.

Constantly being pulled into tactical issues that

exhaust you from strategic thinking.

Struggling to speak the language of business to

your CEO, CFO, and Board.

These days, most marketing teams are comprised of hyper-

specialized individuals. Many CMOs become leaders by gaining
expertise in specific marketing disciplines, like demand generation,
product marketing, and marketing operations.

In other words, if you’re on a marketing team, there’s a good chance

you have a marketing specialty. When you become a CMO, you need
to quickly fill in your knowledge gaps to understand all aspects of
a strong marketing team, and effectively extend your purview in
partnership with other areas of the business cross-functionally.

The feeling that you don’t know what you’re doing or that you’ll never
be good enough can lead to imposter syndrome — and it’s a tough
feeling to shake.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

 Tactics to Overcome Imposter Syndrome as
a CMO
The good news is that you can easily conquer your imposter
syndrome using a combination of self-reflection and team-
building tactics.
Easily conquer your
Here are a few tried-and-true ways you can work to combat
imposter syndrome
imposter syndrome.
using a combination
of self-reflection and Recognize and acknowledge achievements
team-building tactics.
Develop a habit of acknowledging and celebrating both personal and
team achievements. This will reinforce a positive self-image and will
affirm your capabilities as a successful marketing leader.

Foster a growth mindset

View challenges more as an opportunity for growth and learning

rather than an opportunity to fail. When you view a challenge as an
opportunity to learn, you can open yourself up to creative solutions
and possibilities that you may not have considered before.

Seek support and feedback from colleagues

Take advantage of your HR team’s learning and development

programs, like a mentoring experience or peer-to-peer learning
opportunities. Seek out ways to build positive and supportive
relationships across your organization. This way, you have trusted
people to turn to for guidance, constructive feedback, and
reassurance during challenging times.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

 Set realistic expectations

If you’re crushed by the weight of expectations placed on you,

maybe it’s time to reevaluate. Work with your CEO to define
realistic and achievable goals. This way, you can set benchmarks
that acknowledge the complexities of the marketing landscape.

Focus on Continuous Learning

Prioritize personal and professional development, stay updated

on industry trends, and invest in skill enhancement to foster
confidence in your knowledge and expertise.

Practice Self-Compassion

Cultivate a sense of self-compassion and understanding that

mistakes and setbacks are part of the learning process. Treat
yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would
extend to others facing similar challenges.

Emphasize Team Accomplishments

Recognize and highlight the contributions of your marketing team.

This fosters a culture of collaboration and shared success.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

Four Tips for CMOs to Improve Their
Leadership Skills
Marketing is a fast-paced world. As the landscape continues to
evolve, the need for strong leadership skills is increasingly vital.

Today, it’s not enough for a CMO to simply be a marketing expert.

They need to be impeccable leaders. This means developing critical
soft skills, like:

Fostering collaboration Adapting to chaotic

among teammates market changes

Aligning marketing Communicating the

strategies with overall changing consumer
business goals trends to the C-Suite

It’s a lot for one person to juggle.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

“
A point of advice I’d give is to go beyond surface-level
trend-spotting by analyzing the intention behind
marketing strategies,” says Rowan Tonkin, CMO of
Planful. “It’s worth knowing if a particular trend aligns
with my target audience’s preferences. That way I can
avoid marketing strategies that might be popular but
ineffective for our audience.”
Rowan Tonkin, CMO of Planful

In addition to Rowan’s tip, here are four key ways CMOs can boost
their leadership skills to drive their teams toward success.

Break Apart Respond to Shifting

Departmental Silos Consumer Priorities

1 2

3 4
Optimize Learn to Speak the
Planning Processes Language of Business

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

 1) Break Apart Departmental Silos
As mentioned above, most marketing teams are made up of hyper-
specialized people who each have their own north star. This kind of
environment makes it easy to build silos across the team.

It’s up to the CMO to break apart departmental silos by fostering a

culture of collaboration, open communication, and innovation.

• Encourage cross-departmental communication. Schedule

regular meetings, brainstorming sessions, and cross-
departmental projects.

• Establish shared goals and objectives. Align departments with

shared goals and objectives that promote a unified vision for
the organization.

• Implement cross-functional teams. Build teams comprised

of members from different departments to work on specific
projects or initiatives.

• Utilize technology for collaboration. Invest in collaborative

digital tools and platforms that facilitate real-time
communication, document sharing, and project management
across departments.

• Promote a culture of accountability and recognition. Create a

culture that values accountability and recognizes collaborative
efforts across departments.

• Encourage regular cross-departmental feedback.

Create mechanisms for employees to provide input on
interdepartmental collaboration and processes.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

2) Respond to Shifting Consumer Priorities
As consumer needs and priorities continue to evolve, it’s crucial
for CMOs to stay ahead of the curve. A customer-centric
approach can help CMOs adapt their marketing strategies to
align with shifting consumer priorities and remain competitive in
the marketplace.

Here are a few ways CMOs can effectively respond to shifting

consumer priorities.

• Market research. Regularly analyze consumer data to

understand evolving trends, preferences, and behaviors.

• Embrace customer-centricity. Understand your

customer’s pain points, aspirations, and motivations to
create marketing campaigns.

• Personalization. Leverage data-driven insights to speak

directly to individual consumer preferences, interests, and
purchase history.

• Encourage feedback. Actively seek customer feedback

through surveys, social media interactions, and customer
service channels. Use this information to optimize your
marketing strategies.

• Build trust with consumers. Communicate transparently

about business practices, product ingredients, and
company policies.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

3) Optimize Planning Processes
Building a marketing plan doesn’t have to be a daunting task. An
effective marketing plan is a roadmap that outlines a business’s
specific marketing strategy and actions to achieve goals.

Here are the 9-steps we recommend to build a marketing plan that’ll

yield a strong return on investment (ROI).

• Conduct a marketing audit. Get a quick look of where you’re

currently at and the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

• Collect market research. Learn where your organization stands

against the competition.

• Understand your audience. Build personas to learn about your

target audience’s pain points, wants, and needs.

• Develop your positioning and messaging. Understand your

organization’s ability to influence consumer perception and how
it is distinguished from competitors.

• Set marketing goals based on your organization’s overall

business goals.

• Determine your budget. Understand the exact amount you’ll

need to meet or exceed your goals.

• Develop marketing campaigns that help you make moves

toward your goals.

• Develop an implementation timeline. Assign tasks to different

team members before executing the marketing plan.

• Evaluate and make improvements. Understand the performance

of your marketing plan and make changes accordingly.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

 4) Learn to Speak the Language of Business
Presenting to an executive audience means shifting your mindset
from a marketing practitioner to the leader of a critical business
function who reports facts in the business context.

Making that mindset shift is crucial to effectively prove the value of

“Your CEO doesn’t
your marketing efforts.
need to hear
about your day- • Focus on results, not activities. Your CEO doesn’t need to hear
to-day. They want about your day-to-day. They want to see outcomes.

to see outcomes.” • Show the relationship to your goals. Even if you don’t meet
your goals, tie it back to your initial KPIs.

• Communicate value in business terms. Board members rarely

have backgrounds in marketing. Be sure to brush up on your
financial literacy to discuss your team’s results.

• Tell the truth. Don’t cherry-pick your data to make your results
look better than they are. Being honest builds trust.

• Take the opportunity to teach. Talking with your C-Suite

colleagues is a great way to turn the tables to help them
understand the language of marketing.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership

Invest in Proper Technology to Support
Your Team
Marking technology has exploded in the past year. In 2022 alone,
there were a reported 9,932 individual software solutions geared at
marketing teams — up 24% from two years prior.

Not all marketing solutions hit the same caliber of excellence

your team needs to succeed. You’d think, given the vast array of
resources, achieving your goals would be easier. In reality, this
staggering number causes indecision among leaders and,
ultimately, decision-making paralysis.

Here are a few factors to keep in mind while shopping for marketing
performance management software.

Look for a Cloud-Based Platform

Cloud-based technology is a modern way to keep your marketing
efforts in one centralized space.

As CMO, the major benefit for you is that you can make informed
decisions based on information in this space rather than toggling
between your different tools.

How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership


Planful for Marketing was
designed to help teams like
yours eliminate surprises
in their planning process.
Schedule a demo to talk
with a live expert about how
Planful can help you reach
peak marketing performance.
Schedule a Live Demo
Lean Into Artificial Intelligence (AI)
According to Gartner, 63% of marketing leaders plan to invest in
AI within the year. It’s important to keep in mind that AI shouldn’t
replace your human team members or major marketing functions.
Instead, AI automates the more repetitive tasks that consume your
team’s time. This way, they’re released from the burden of manual
work and are free to think creatively and strategically.
Keep an Eye Out for Integrations
With all the different marketing team tools available these days,
creating an overly complicated tech stack is tempting.
Instead, consider an investment in technology that integrates with
your favorite tools, like Slack, Outlook, or Teams.
How to Level Up Your Marketing Leadership
About Planful
Planful is the pioneer of financial performance management cloud
software for Marketers. The Planful platform drives peak financial
performance across the business and is used around the globe
to consolidate planning, budgeting, and analytics into one view.
Planful for Marketing enables marketers to optimize their marketing
performance and true business value by ROI. Superior to traditional
disconnected spreadsheets and disparate tactical marketing
systems, only Planful for Marketing delivers a unified, collaborative
marketing solution with process automation for improving agility,
efficiency, and business value of marketing investments. Planful
for Marketing provides full visibility of real-time insight for better
decision making and operational marketing excellence. To learn
more visit www.Planful.com/Marketing.